Amos Yong

Christianity's center of gravity has tilted from the Euro-American West to the global South. Driving this shift is the emergence of charismatic renewal movements among Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox churches. This reshaping of the theological landscape has inspired prominent theologian Amos Yong to construct a cutting-edge theology for the twenty-first century. Within a Pentecostal and evangelical framework, Yong's Renewing Christian Theology is a primer on how to think theologically in a global context.Students seeking an introduction to systematic theology will not only discover the treasures of the tradition but will also encounter a revolutionary pastoral theology that bridges Pentecostal, charismatic, evangelical, and ecumenical traditions. Yong's theological imagination prioritizes Christian hope, gifts of the Spirit, baptism, sanctification, and healing. Renewing Christian Theology unveils an inclusive theology conversant with contemporary theological movements - theology and science, contextual theologies, intercultural theologies, theology and disability, public theologies, theology and the arts, and theological aesthetics. Renewing Christian Theology is theology for the twenty-first-century church.

Pentecostal theologian Amos Yong points readers toward an increased theological emphasis on God as love. In Spirit of Love, the first pneumatology of the divine spiritual gift of love, Yong constructs ecumenical and interdisciplinary theology of the Holy Spirit for the church universal. A distinctive contribution toward greater theological reflection on the triune God, Spirit of Love moves readers toward a more complete understanding of God as the source of divine love.

Recent thinking in Christian theology of religions has taken a “pneumatological turn” which asks how the doctrine of the Holy Spirit can contribute to the interreligious dialogue and to the emerging discourse of comparative theology. Pneumatology and the Christian-Buddhist Dialogue. Does the Spirit Blow through the Middle Way? tests the viability of this approach as applied to the Christian-Buddhist dialogue. Various Christian and Buddhist traditions are compared and contrasted within a pneumatological framework. Is the Holy Spirit to be found along the Buddha’s middle way? Some Christians say yes, while others demur. The thesis of this volume is that such a pneumatological perspective opens up possibilities for the deepening and transformation of Christian theology in the religiously plural world of the twenty-first century.

Inspiring and challenging study that rethinks the Bible's teaching on disability A theologian whose life experience includes growing up alongside a brother with Down syndrome, Amos Yong in this book rereads and reinterprets biblical texts about human disability, arguing that the way we read biblical texts, not the Bible itself, is what causes us to marginalize persons with disabilities. Revealing and examining the underlying stigma of disability that exists even in the church, Yong shows how the Bible offers good news to people of all abilities -- and he challenges churches to become more inclusive communities of faith.

Christians talk about the Holy Spirit, but rarely know how to recognize the Spirit's presence and activity in the world. Luke is the most illuminating gospel writer on the topic of the Holy Spirit. Luke writes about Jesus as the messiah anointed by the Holy Spirit, and about the church as the Spirit-empowered fellowship in the Mediterranean world of the first century. These meditations on Luke-Acts attempt to discern how the winds of the Spirit have blown in the lives of Jesus, his disciples, and the earliest Christians so that we can track and participate in the works of the Holy Spirit in the global village of the 21st century.

Is a pentecostal-charismatic worldview defensible in light of contemporary science? In The Spirit of Creation Amos Yong demonstrates that pentecostal thought does indeed have merit in scientific contexts. What's more, he argues that pentecostal-charismatic views regarding the dynamic presence and activity of the Spirit of God and the pluralistic cosmology of many spirits have something important to add to the broad discussion now taking place at the crossroads of science and religion. Interacting with many scientific fields of study -- including psychology, sociology, evolutionary science, cosmology, and more -- Yong's Spirit of Creation demonstrates the significance of pentecostal ideas to the ongoing dialogue between theology and science.

In the Days of Caesar is a constructive political theology formulated in sustained dialogue with the Pentecostal and charismatic renewal -- one of the most vibrant religious movements at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Amos Yong here argues that the many tongues, practices, and gifts of renewal Christianity offer up new resources for thinking about how Christian community can engage and transform the social, political, and economic structures of the world. Yong has three goals here. First he seeks to correct stereotypes of Pentecostalism, both political and theological. Secondly he aims to provoke Pentecostals to reflect theologically from out of the depths of their own Pentecostalism rather than merely to adopt some framework for theological or political self-understanding. Finally Yong shows that a distinctively Pentecostal form of theological reflection is not a parochial activity but has constructive potential to illuminate Christian belief and practice. This book's engagement with political theology from a Pentecostal perspective is the first of its kind.

In this book, Yong shows what happens when the revolutionary practices of Jesus and the early church are applied to Christian relations with people of other faiths. He shows that the religious 'other' is not a mere object for conversion, but a neighbour to whom hospitality must be extended.

While the struggle for disability rights has transformed secular ethics and public policy, traditional Christian teaching has been slow to account for disability in its theological imagination. Amos Yong crafts both a theology of disability and a theology informed by disability. The result is a Christian theology that not only connects with our present social, medical, and scientific understanding of disability but also one that empowers a set of best practices appropriate to our late modern context.

The Pentecostal movement has had an incredible impact on the shape of worldwide Christianity in the past century. Estimates are that Pentecostals and charismatics make up approximately one-fourth of Christians worldwide, and the numbers are only expected to grow. With these developments comes the need for thoughtful Christians of all persuasions to better understand Pentecostal theology. In fact, Amos Yong believes that Pentecostal theology can be a great gift to the church at large.Yong presents a thoroughly Pentecostal theology of salvation, the church, the nature of God, and creation. He also provides a fascinating survey of the state of worldwide Pentecostalism, examining how Pentecostal theology is influencing Christian churches in other countries.